What's happening in HISD

HISD’s new Billy Reagan K-8 Education Center, scheduled to open this Fall, will offer a two-way dual language program to its kindergarten class in an effort to develop full bilingualism and bi-literacy for all students.

The two-way dual language program is both an additive bilingual program for Spanish-speaking students and a foreign language immersion program for English-speaking students in which a combination of native Spanish speakers and native English speakers are taught together in the two-way classrooms.

The Billy Reagan K-8 Education Center has been designed to be a learning, innovative environment that will address the global marketplace and the need for a multilingual workforce in the 21st century.

The center will implement this program in one of the kindergarten classes during the 2012-2013 academic year and add one grade per year until there is a complete two-way dual language program in grades K-8.

HISD currently offers the two-way dual language program at seven elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school and one K-8 academy. During the next academic year, HISD will be adding it to four more elementary schools and the new Billy Reagan K-8 Education Center (4842 Anderson Road).

Many of the schools offering the two-way dual language program are still accepting applications for the 2012-2013 academic year. For more information, contact the Multilingual Department at 713-556-6961.